UFO ROUNDUP Volume 7 Number 50
Volume 7
Number 50
**, 2002
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
UFO FLOTILLA HOVERS OVER BUENOS AIRES
On Thursday, November 28, 2002, "an intense UFO wave rolled over" the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. UFOs were seen and videotaped by witnesses on the ground in the large South American city.
The main witnesses were Ricardo E. D'Angelo and a companion. "Using a camera described as 'broken and out-of-date,'" D'Angelo "was able to photograph a fleet of three objects descending over the northeastern section of Buenos Aires."
The UFOs flew over the Santa Fe section of the city, north of the Avenida Nueve de Julio. "No apparent electrical anomalies were reported in the witnesses' area."
"Minutes earlier, another object flashed for several minutes over the vicinity of Chacarith and Belgrano," two sections of Buenos Aires, "at an altitude of 1,500 meters (5,000 feet)."
"'Arturo and I saw the entire phenomenon,'" D'Angelo said. He "employed a SONY 360 Nightshot" videocamera to shoot the footage. "'What can be seen in the video sequence is 15 frames of one UFO, hitherto unseen, which crossed the sky from north to south seconds before the first one was observed. But upon reaching a point equidistant from the other two (not seen until this moment--R.D.) it stopped completely for only brief seconds." (Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Lucy Guzman para eso informe.)
(Editor's Comment: And welcome to South America Under Siege Week here at UFO Roundup. For the third week in a row, South America has been having an intensive UFO flap. And Buenos Aires is not the only South American capital being overflown by UFOs. Keep reading...)
SAUCERS HOVER OVER BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
On Thursday, November 28, 2002, the same day UFOs were seen in Buenos Aires, at 3:45 p.m., several silver disc-shaped objects were spotted in Bogota, the capital of Colombia.
The objects, described by witnesses as "various flattened spheres," were spotted hovering over the Cerro Monserrate (hill) in Bogota. Telephones were ringing off the hook at the Bogota office of Contacto OVNI de Colombia, a UFO research group, according to William Chavez Ariza, the group's spokesman.
Contacto OVNI investigator Juan Arana drove out to Cerro Monserrate with his videocamera. He arrived just in time to "film several UFOs performing irregular and unusual maneuvers over the hill and surrounding neighborhoods before flying away suddenly from the area." (See NotiOVNI for December 1, 2002. Muchas gracias a Daniel Munoz y William Chavez Ariza de Contacto OVNI de Colombia para eso informe.)
LUMINOUS UFO FLIES OVER CARACAS, VENEZUELA
On Sunday, December 1, 2002, "a brilliant sphere of white light similar to a fireworks display" flew over the city of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.
According to Venezuelan ufologist Martha Rosenthal, six eyewitnesses "watched the glowing sphere pass overhead."
One of the eyewitnesses, "a man named Cortez," reported the UFO overflight to Sra. Rosenthal. (See NotiOVNI for December 1, 2002. Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Martha Rosenthal para eso informe.)
"NAZI UFO" PIX STARTLE UFOLOGISTS IN BRAZIL
On Wednesday, November 27, 2002, persons unknown emailed two mysterious photographs to over a hundred ufologists in Brazil. The photos claim to be "proof of an extraterrestrial presence in Hitler's Third Reich" during the 1940s.
The first photo shows the blueprints for a futuristic "space plane." The second photo shows the streamlined "flying wing" at an airfield in Germany, ready for its pre-flight walk-around check, and painted in wartime Luftwaffe livery.
Ufologist Gilberto Santos Mayo said the object "looked like one of the craft in a Star Wars movie."
Juarez Prata de Almeida stated, "This photograph, credited to the North American secret service (the wartime Office of Strategic Services or OSS, the forerunner of the CIA--J.T.), in truth was obtained in Hitler's Germany in 1942, and historical researchers have recently released it to the public. The photo proves that Extraterrestrials visited the Third Reich and communicated with high officials of the Nazi regime."
However, Wilton Monteiro Sobrinho pointed out that this photograph has been published before in UFO magazines. He cited its presence in "UFO number 38, page 11; and published again in UFO number 13, page 27, with an article by Robert Pinotti; and in UFO number 24, page 17 with an article by Javier Serra entitled, 'Majestic-12: UFO conspiracy or a true Cosmic Watergate?'"
The photos can be found on the Web at http://members.cox.net/rebid/Farnborough_05.html
John Hayes, webmaster at UFOINFO, identified the mystery craft as a Horten H-IX, a jet fighter-bomber developed by Nazi Germany late in World War II.
"The H-IX was a single-seat fighter-bomber with a wingspan of 16 meters (53 feet) and two jet engines, being a further development of the (Horten) H-V and H-VII designs."
"Four aircraft of the H-IX type were started, designated V.1 to V.4. The V.1 and V.2 were built at Gottingen, designed to carry two BMW 003 jet engines. The V.2 was built with two Juno 004 (jet) engines and had two hours flying before crashing during a single-engine landing. The test pilot, Ziller, apparently landed short after misjudging his approach," Hayes explained.
"V.3 was built by Gotha at Friedrichsrodal as a prototype of the senior production version."
"V.4 was designed to be a two-man night fighter," with a stretched nose in the fuselage to accomodate the second crewman.
"In shape the H-IX was a pure wing with increased chord at the center to give sufficient thickness to have the pilot and the jet engines, which were placed close together on either side."
Hayes discounted the possibility of the craft being a true UFO, adding, "It looks as if there has been a lot of 'artistic interpretation' in the actual shape of the craft." (Muito obrigado a John Hayes, Juarez Prata de Almeida, Wilton Monteiro Sobrinho e otros a Ufologia Brasileira por esas informacoes.)
FOUR OVAL UFOs SIGHTED OVER ALICE SPRINGS, N.T.
On Wednesday, November 27, 2002, three witnesses in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia "observed four silver oval craft high in the daytime sky. They saw the UFOs emerge from a cloudbank. The craft were travelling in a diamond formation."
While the witnesses were viewing the UFOs, "they heard a 'snap' noise, and a white triangular object with rounded corners and dark ovoid highlights on its top surface seemed to appear out of nowhere. The craft was suspended under a large parachute. It drifted out of sight of the witnesses. The four silver craft appeared to trail it for a few seconds and faded from sight."
"The witness, who is in the aeronautics industry, estimated that the white triangle was roughly the size of a (Boeing) 747 jumbo jet in length." (See Filer's Files Number 49 for December 4, 2002. Many thanks to Australian ufologist Conway Costigan and to George A. Filer of MUFON for allowing UFO Roundup to republish their report.)
(Editor's Comment: Since UFOs don't need a parachute, it looks as if somebody is testing a space-plane in Australia's Outback, and the saucers popped in for a quick recon of the new vehicle.)
MYSTERIOUS LIGHT FLASHES SEEN IN THE CENTRAL USA
On Monday, December 2, 2002, at 5:10 a.m., Gary Smith was driving to work in his hometown of Sellersburg, Indiana (population 6,071) when he heard a strange report on his car radio.
"As I was driving to work at about 5:10 a.m., people started calling in to the Louisville, Kentucky radio station WHAS," 94 on the FM dial, "about lights changing colors and shooting across the sky from the southwest to the northeast. I myself did not observe these (particular) lights. They were spotted as far away as Columbus, Indiana."
"Apparently, the lights were changing colors from red to green to blue, according to descriptions, and were about cloud level, which were very high and thin. (An estimated 22,000 feet of 6,600 meters--J.T.)"
Then Gary saw "a strange, very bright light. It was very white. Almost star-like but much, much brighter. I thought it may have been the planet Venus, but after some Internet research, it was too early (for Venus) to be seen and too far south."
"This object was also observed by a radio call-in who happens to live in the same town, Sellersburg, Indiana, where I work. I myself observed this object from my workplace parking lot. A co-worker also saw it." (Email Form Report)
AIRMEN SPOT FLASHES AT LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE
On Thursday, December 5, 2002, at 3:45 a.m., a U.S. Air Force security guard we'll call Scott reported, "While I was on duty with Security Forces at Langley Air Force Base," just north of Newport News, Virginia (population 180,150), "myself and another airman witnessed four flashes light up the night sky. It was a type of flash you would associate with a lightning storm. They were very noticeable and lit up the whole area."
"It was raining and hailing, and the weather was very poor."
"The first flash gave off a bluish glow. The second flash gave off a reddish glow. The third flash exhibited a yellow-orangeish glow, and the final flash was blue-greenish. These lit up the entire sky and blacked out the power on two city blocks" in Newport News, Va.
"We patrolled the area thinking it might have been repercussions from a fallen tree or downed wire. We couldn't find any debris. We notified the Fire Department and the power company," he added, "The airman and myself believe it to have been a UFO. After the third flash, we thought we saw an 'illuminated' triangle flashing around in the sky. It was very brief, though." (Many thanks to Louise A. Lowry for forwarding this report.)
UFOs APPEAR IN MEXICO
On Sunday, November 17, 2002, "a spherical UFO of a metallic appearance was seen by dozens of witnesses at the La Campana 2002 auto rally at the Autodromo de los Hermanos Rodriguez (stadium)" near Mexico City.
According to Mexican ufologists Ana Luisa Cid and Alfonso Salazar, "the UFO made motions to both the left and the right above the crowd. It was also detected by air traffic controllers at the Mexico City International Airport."
"According to Salazar, the UFO was challenged at (an altitude of) 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) by a Bell 206 helicopter, which caught images of the object on its automatic camera. Witnesses saw the UFO moving around in the sky north of the stadium for up to ten minutes. Finally, at 3 p.m., it flew away at a great velocity, losing itself in the horizon."
On Friday night, November 22, 2002, "a strange incandescent object hovered over a hilly area near the small town of Agua de Correa, near the city of Zihuatanejo in the Mexican state of Guerrero. The object, 'which covered the sky with great splendor,' caused traffic jams on the main roads" leading out of Zihuatanejo."
According to Mexican ufologist Alberto Gomez, "the UFO was also seen by people in Los Vecinos de Petatlan and Jose Azueta and by a few people on the outskirts of Zihuatanejo. A short while later, troops of the Mexican Army rolled into Zihuatanejo aboard a convoy of heavy-duty military trucks." (See NotiOVNI for December 1, 2002. Muchas gracias a Daniel Munoz para esos imformes.)
A MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION IN DEEP SPACE
"It came with no warning."
"At 8:06 a.m. EDT on Friday, October 4th (2002), NASA's High Energy Transient Explorer satellite (HETE-2) detected a strong gamma-ray burst in (the constellation) Pisces. For years astronomers have been trying to pin down the sources of these tremendous explosions, but that means acting fast."
"Within 11 seconds the HETE satellite sent out an alert to astronomers worldwide on the Gamma-ray-burst Coordinates Network (GCN). Just 38 seconds later, while the burst was still in progress, HETE narrowed down its position to within 10 arcminutes and sent out a second alert containing this crucial information."
"Astronomers around the globe sprang into action. In California, Derek W. Fox of Caltech (California Institute of Technology--J.T.) awoke to an automatic page and, following a prearranged protocol, used a laptop (computer) in his home to sieze remote control of the 48-inch (118-centimeter) Oschin Schmidt Telescope on Palomar Mountain, which was conducting as asteroid hunt. The telescope wheeled around to the burst's position and grabbed its first image just nine minutes after the burst began. This image...captured the burst's fading visible-light afterglow at magnitude 15.5. It was the second brightest afterglow ever snared."
"Other optical and radio observatories followed suit. Astronomers at Japan's Kyoto Observatory began tracking the fading afterglow 37 minutes after the burst."
"Amateurs in Finland recorded it fading from magnitude 17.9 to 18.8 from the 8th to the 13th hour after the burst."
"Meanwhile, Australian astronomers obtained a spectrum and a preliminary redshift of 1.60" and later determined "that the burster itself has a redshift of 2.33. This implies a distance of about 10.5 billion light-years, or 80 percent of the way across the observable universe."
"Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic and violent events in the cosmos. A typical one briefly outshines its entire galaxy by millions of times. Yet a GRB's short duration (the gamma radiation last from a fraction of a second to a few minutes) means that the energy source must be incredibly small in size. Most astronomers believe that GRBs result from jets of matter expelled extremely close to the speed of light by the small dense core of a massive star collapsing and spiralling into a newborn, spinning black hole."
"GRB 021004, named for the date it occurred, quickly became the best-observed gamma-ray burst in the 32 years since the first ones were discovered. Within a week results had come in from more than 100 telescopes worldwide." (See Sky & Telescope for January 2003, "The Best-Observed Gamma-Ray Burst," page 22.)
EARLIEST PRECOLUMBIAN WRITING FOUND IN MEXICO
"Symbols carved on stones 2,600 years ago in Mexico suggest that the Olmecs, an early North American (indigenous) people, invented the first writing system in the Americas and that the symbols were adopted by later native cultures such as the Mayans."
"The symbols were found on chips from a stone plaque and on a cylinder stone used for printing that were unearthed in an archaeological dig at the site of an ancient Olmec city near La Venta," in the Mexican state of Tabasco, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east-southeast of Mexico City.
"'These symbols have a very close resemblance to symbols that were found from a later era among Mayan artifacts,' said Kevin Pope, a co-author of the study in the journal Science. 'We think the writing was developed by the Olmecs and then adopted later by the Mayans.'"
"Age-dating of the artifacts suggests they were deposited on the site in about 650 B.C., about 350 years before the date of specimens previously thought to be the earliest examples of Mesoamerican writing." (See USA Today for December 9, 2002, "Symbols pre-date Mayan writing," page 11D.)
A SECRET UNDERGROUND BUNKER FOR DICK CHENEY?
Some strange explosions were reported last week on upper Massachusetts Avenue N.W. in Washington, D.C. People living between Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues called the Metropolitan Police to report "repeated strange explosions" on the grounds of the Naval Observatory, which is the official capital residence of Vice President Dick Cheney.
"Explosions being heard are part of a yearlong security upgrade of the vice president's residence on the observatory grounds, officials said."
"Details are classified."
"Navy spokeswoman Cate Mueller described the work as 'an infrastructure improvement, a utility upgrade.'"
The Naval Observatory, in the western end of the diamond-shaped District of Columbia, "was established in 1893, and the site became the vice president's residence in 1974." (See USA Today for December 9, 2002, "Security upgrades underway at VP's home," page 7A.)
(Editor's Comment: Sounds like some heavy-duty construction is going on. They could be building an underground bunker beneath the observatory. Or maybe they're trying to link up with the existing prehistoric--some say "Atlantean"--tunnel system that runs under Washington, D.C.)
READER FEEDBACK:
STRANGE SECRETS OF THE NEBULAS
Jacqueline Brook writes, "I saw the same thing the couple from Rodney, Ontario saw, from Putney, Vermont (population 1,150). And I know three other people in Putney who saw the same thing also." (See UFO Roundup, volume 7, number 38 for September 17, 2002 "Couple spots a UFO in Rodney, Ontario," page 5.)
"My recollection is that I was looking straight up at the zenith. The 'black triangle UFO' traveled around in a semi-circle, from a 10 o'clock position to a 2 o'clock position, just as they said."
"Last night (December 7, 2002) I pulled up the rather unsophisticated astronomy software that I have on my computer, to see what was near the zenith on that date: the short end of the Northern Cross, Cygnus."
"This jogged a memory for me. I knew I'd made a note in my calendar of another odd sighting near the Northern Cross. I flipped through my calendar to find that it was just two days later (after the Ontario sighting--J.T.), on the (September) 9th (2002)."
"Here's my note: 'Watched a light blink on and off twice again--certain that I saw it--8:45 p.m., just northeast of the Northern Cross.'"
"Guess what's in this region of the sky? The North American Nebula!"
"My take on 9/11 (i.e. the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001--J.T.) from the get-go, based on the content of some strange emails that began coming to me on September 9, 2001, is that the events were an inside job: we were at war with ourselves that day--and still are."
"Is it possible that ETs have been trying to point out the same thing?"
"Look at what's right next to the North American Nebula--the Pelican Nebula. The pelican is a symbol of self-sacrifice, and a Masonic symbol of resurrection!"
"And if this isn't an interesting omen, I don't know what is--(the comet) Hale-Bopp streaking squarely across the North American Nebula on October 9, 1977!"
(Editor's Comment: That's an intriguing coincidence, Jackie. As I recall, five years ago, Hale Bopp was known as "the Death comet." And then it really earned that nickname by precipitating the mass deaths of Marshall H. Applewhite's Heavens Gate sect in San Diego in 1997.)
From the UFO Files...
CHRISTMAS DOUBLE FEATURE
To celebrate the holidays, UFO Roundup presents not one but two Fortean cases from yesteryear. Enjoy...and have a Merry Christmas!
1954: ANOMALOUS STORM THREATENS LONDON
On December 2, 1954, "a strange thunderstorm over London flooded the West End and Trafalgar Square." Heavy flooding was also reported in Camden Town, Kingston and Epsom, as well.
What's strange about this storm was the appearance of dark cumulous clouds at altitudes of 50,000 feet (15,000 meters), too high for such cloud formation to take place.
"Mrs. Jeanne Macdonald-Gregory," who had served as an RAF airwoman in World War II, "who watched it, wrote...'The sky did not contain the normal heavy electric thunderclouds but moving (cloud) layers, black in parts. Two falls of hail as large as marbles. The one thing that will certainly interest you is that during the whole of this gale-period, the RAF had jet fighters up! Why?"
Mrs. Macdonald-Gregory contacted old friends in the RAF, but to no avail. She added, "'I ran into a blank wall of silence.'"
"'I watched no fewer than five jets climbing like mad to their maximum height (altitude in the USA--J.T.), the cloudbase, at that period being around 50,000 feet. I saw two of the fighter jets break away and dart off at right angles, as if they had suddenly seen something else in a different quarter.'"
"'No Air Force would send up planes in that sort of weather, if they had not been at panic stations. Was the phenomenon induced by the sixty-three atomic explosions (in the nine years since 1945--J.T.), or by those watching us from outer space? That electric storm made me wonder.'" (See the book Flying Saucers Uncensored by Harold T. Wilkins, The Citadel Press, New York, N.Y., 1955, page 255.)
1980: DISCO INFERNO
If you feel in the mood for dancing come New Year's Eve, there's a dancehall you might want to skip. It's in the city of Darlington, in County Durham, UK.
"Vicky Gilmour, 19, was in the girls' room of a disco in Darlington, County Durham, when she burst into flames."
"The burns almost killed her, as friends tried to beat out the flames." The girl survived but needed skin grafts for her face and body.
"In the belief that a cigarette ignited her light Indian cotton dress, a consumer organization tried setting alight pieces of Vicky's dress and other similar dresses with cigarettes--they just smoldered."
"In some respects this is similar to the story of Phyllis Newcombe, who in 1938 burst into flames while leaving a ballroom floor, only Phyllis died in hospital later."
"In this case, too, the dress was tested by flicking cigarette butts at it, to no effect."
Both the Vicky Gilmour and Phyllis Newcombe cases have entered the puzzling annals of the phenomenon called spontaneous human combustion or SHC. (See the book The World's Most Incredible Stories, edited by Paul Sieveking and Bob Rickard, Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1998, page 57.)
Well, that's it for this week. Join us in seven days for more UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you next time!
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2002 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO Roundup on their websites or in news groups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the item first appeared.
